Deputies End Inmates Standoff Inside Santa Cruz County Jail

SANTA CRUZ (CBS SF) — Santa Cruz County deputies have ended an escalating standoff inside the county jail after inmates used “mattresses as makeshift barricades and prepared tools for offensive and defensive use,” jail officials said.

Lt. Chris Clark said in a press release that the rising tensions were finally quelled when a contingent of sheriff’s deputies forcibly entered the inmates cells on Tuesday afternoon.

No one was seriously injured.

Over the last several days, the male inmates residing in a housing unit at the jail became increasingly concerned about cold temperatures in the unit, sheriff’s officials said.

According to sheriff’s officials, on Monday and early Tuesday the inmates became “increasingly non-compliant to the point that they refused correctional staff directives, used mattresses as makeshift barricades and prepared tools for offensive and defensive use.”

Correctional staff spent hours trying to resolve and deescalate the disturbance, but inmates refused to comply with orders.

In the wake of the disturbance, maintenance crews have worked to increase the temperature above 70 degrees and jail staff provided inmates with extra blankets.